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ANNEXATION OF HAWAII. 



SPEECH 



HON. RICHARD P. BLAND, 



OF MISSOURI, 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



Monday, Juni) 13, 1898, 



WASMINOXON. 

1898, 



^ Co 



72965 






w 



SPEECH 

OF 

HON. II IC HARD P. BLAND 



The House having under consideration the joint resolution (H. Res. S59) to 
provide for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States- 
Mr. BLAND said: 

Mr. Speaker: In entering upon a discussion of this important 
question at the present time, we shotild not forget the situation 
that confronts us. Whatever may be said with regard to the 
ultimate policy of this Government toward the Hawaiian Islands 
or as to the importance of that people and that country in rela- 
tion to our own, this is not the time to enter upon any final dis- 
position of that question. We are noAV in the midst of a war the 
prosecution of which was entered upon for a certain purpose, 

The resolutions that passed this House and the other branch of 
Congress declaring war against Spain committed this Government 
expressly to the sole policy of freedom, disclaiming any intention 
of an aggressive warfare. Cuba, almost a part of our own terri- 
tory, the most important island south of us, would be, as a i^art of 
our own territory, a means of defense in time of war far more im- 
portant than the Hawaiian Islands. Yet in order that the civ- 
ilized world might know, as well as our own people, that we had 
entered upon this contest in the interest of humanity, in the in- 
terest of freedom, and not in a spirit of aggression, we declared 
that the sole purpose of this war was to relieve the starving and 
distressed people of Cuba and to extinguish the barbarity of 
Spanish rule in that island. 

Our war resolutions explicitly stated that we entered on no war 
for conquest, and that we would not annex the Island of Cuba, 

but would give free government to her people. That was the 
sm 3 , 



declared purpose, and that only. For that purpose, and that pur- 
pose only, have we voted to supply the Army and the Navy of 
the United States. For that purpose, and that purpose only, have 
the American people sanctioned unanimously this war as being a 
holy war. 

"Why, sir, if it had been contended here when we were entering 
upon this contest that it was intended for aggression for the 
seizure of the Hawaiian Islands, the maintenance of our sover- 
eignty in the China Sea, that it was intended to make alliances 
with other great governments in order to participate in the parti- 
tion of China and to make aggressions in the Asiatic waters — 
meaning thereby not only $500,000,000 of interest-bearing debt, 
but probably four times that amount, meaning thereby not only 
increased taxation upon the people of this country to the extent 
of $150,000,000 annually for a temporary purpose, but a debt of at 
least $3,000,000,000 increased taxation for a purpose without limit 
and without termination— I doubt if this House or the Senate 
would ever have made a declaration of war under such conditions. 
And, sir, to bring forward this policy now and to urge this measure 
as a war measure is simply to write on the statute books of this 
country a falsification of the very declarations that we made in 
going to war. 

A war measure! There is no Spanish fleet threatening the Ha- 
waiian Islands. No one pretends that the possession of those islands 
is necessary now as a defense of our coasts. But, on the contrary, 
Mr. Speaker, we have assembled to-day at San Francisco a fleet 
ready to transport troops and supplies to the Philippine Islands; 
all of our war ships are practically leaving that coast and going to 
the defense of Dewey in the Philippine Islands because we need 
no defense on that coast. 

If we had any use or shall have any need of a base for coal sup- 
plies and a harbor of refuge at Hawaii, we have all that now in 
the Sandwich Islands. By treaty we are in possession of Pearl 
Harbor, the only harbor on the Sandwich Islands that is suitable 
for this purpose. We have the sole sovereign control of this har- 
bor, even to the exclusion of the Government of Hawaii. We now 
own and control a naval station on these islands. We need noth- 
ing more. Even admitting that there is or should be a necessity 

3476 



for a coaling station there, we have that as completely and aa 
effectually as we could have it by owning the islands. 

Coal has never been found on the Hawaiian Islands, and a coal- 
ing station there must be supplied by transporting coal to the 
islands and storing it in our station there— a station that by treaty 
we have the exclusive right to fortify and hold against the world, 
and Pearl Harbor is the only place on the whole coast of Hawaii 
where such a station is at all feasible. No other nation can get 
such a station on these islands, for there is no other practicable 
harbor there to possess. 

Why undertake to deceive ourselves or deceive the world by the 
hypocritical cry that Hawaii is necessary now as a war measure? 
No intelligent man believes such a statement. 

No, sir, we started out protesting against the system of coloni- 
zation. We have from the beginning denounced the idea of col- 
onization. We started out for the purpose of wresting one of 
Spain's colonies from her rule, because our Government is hostile 
to the idea of people being dominated as a colony. In vindica- 
tion of our antagonism to colonization and our position in favor 
of freedom our flag was to be planted by our Army and Navy 
XTpon the soil of Cuba. Now, on the contrary, that same flag — as 
a "war measure," it is said— is to be taken and planted upon the 
Island of Hawaii without the consent of the people of that island. 
Such a policy is indefensible; and the plea which is put forward 
in excuse for it has no foundation in fact at the present time. 

The gentleman from Nevada [Mr. Newlands] , who addressed 
this House a short time ago, undertook to put himself right on 
this question by disclaiming any idea of pressing this policy of 
colonization into the China seas or interfering with European 
complications. But he ought to know that this movement for 
the annexation of Hawaii is simply an entering wedge for such a 
policy. If not, Mr. Speaker, why can we not wait until this war 
is over and the people can take this question into consideration 
without reference to any of the complications existing at the 
present time? 

The fact is, the Government of Hawaii as now constituted— not 
the people of Hawaii— has been knocking for some years at our 
doors. Dui'ing two Administrations, or during a period begin- 



ning at the close of one Adininigtration and extending through 
the whole of another, that Government has been presenting itself 
here. But up to this hour, Mr. Speaker, there has been a steady 
refusal on the part of the Government of the United States to 
accept their treaty or their entreaties. In time of peace, when 
this question could be considered calmly and dispassionately, 
when no complications were involved, when no pressure could be 
made under militarism and military aggression, we have refused 
this offer. 

But now, sir, taking advantage of a declaration of war and of a 
condition of hostilities with the bankrupt Government of Spain, 
under that pressure and in violation of the spirit in which the war 
was entered upon, a policy of aggression and a policy of territorial 
acquisition is urged. It will not do, Mr. Speaker. This Govern- 
ment, after having made its solemn declaration that this war was 
a war for humanity and for freedom, can not afford now to per- 
vert it into a seltish policy of greed and oppression. It is dishon- 
orable. It does not become a great nation like ours to perpetrate 
a deception upon its own people and upon others. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, so far as the Philippine Islands are concerned, 
I do not believe there is a gentleman on either side of this House 
who is not more tlian willing and anxious to make complete and 
perfect the victory so gallantly won by Dewey, the most notable, 
probably, in the annals of naval warfare. We will not abandon 
the Philipphie Islands until we get ready and in our own good 
time. But, sir, we do not need the Hawaiian Islands to hold the 
Philippines. 

The Philippine Islands were a part of the territory of Spain. 
Bewey and his fleet being in Chinese waters, and te,ving no other 
place where they could go, for the purpose of inflicting a crushing 
defeat upon the enemy and securing a base of operations, went 
into the harbor and fought that battle and won that glorious vic- 
tory. That was legitimate war upon the enemy against whom we 
had declared war, war in the interest of freedom, war in the very 
spirit of our resolutions. Being Spanish territory, legitimately 
acquired, we will hold those islands until this war is over, and that 
problem can be then solved. 

Solved how? I may not stop here to argue that question, but 

347ti 



there is only one true way to solve it. We can not sell tlie islands, 
because Ave have no right as a free people to undertake to sell a 
people or a part of a people we have conqtiered.' They deserve 
the boon of liberty as much as do the people of Cuba; and if, in 
the providence of God, those islands are also freed and turned 
over to their own people for self-government as Cuba must be 
freed, it simply adds to our luster and does not detract from it. 

But we can not honorably do anything else with those islands. 
We can not profitably hold them permanently, because the hold- 
ing of them would involve us in all the diplomatic relations with 
European and Asiatic politics, against which entanglements we 
have from the beginning protested. 

So far as Puerto Rico is concerned, I believe that it is the duty 
of this Government to drive Spain from that island and forever 
quit her dominion over it. Because we have begun a war against 
Spain, that is the Government which is proper to vanquish as far 
as possible in accomplishing our great purposes of liberty, and I 
say that the driving of the Spanish from the island of Puerto 
Rico is not only legitimate, but I believe it to be necessary for 
the peace and security of our country in the future. 

Spain is a bad neighbor, but after we have extinguished the last 
authority of Spain in this hemisphere and practically established 
the Monroe doctrine, shall we abandon that policy and start upon 
the Asiatic seas, among Asiatic populations, in countries devoted 
to Asiatic civilization, unnecessary in peace, wholly unnecessary 
in war, and perpetrate the wrongs that will be perpetrated by the 
passing of these resolutions? 

Why, gentlemen tell us that the Government of Hawaii favors 
this proposition. I use that word only as recognizing those hav- 
ing authority there — the representatives of a few thousand, prob- 
ably three or four thousand among a hundred thousand— the 
white intelligent race ruling the Chinese, Japanese, and Portu- 
guese, as the intelligent white Caucasian race will rule the infe- 
rior race wherever they are brought together. You gentlemen on 
that side who have undertaken to make issues here against some 
of the Southern States upon this proposition show where you 
stand to-day when you are willing to countenance the govern- 
ment of an island by a few white people at the expense of extreme 



8 

domination over an inferior race. [Applause on tlie Democratic 
side.} 

Hawaii is 2,500 miles from San Francisco, the nearest impor- 
tant port on our seacoast. Hawaii has a population of pure, and 
mixed natives, 39,50i; Japanese, 25,407; Chinese, 21,616; Portu^ 
guese, 15,291, or a total population of 101,818 that may be denomi- 
nated as an inferior race. A lai*ge portion, of this population we 
have by treaty and statute undertaken to exclude from our shores 
because they are undesirable. 

There are British residents on the island, 2,250; Germans, 1,432; 
Americans, 3,080. Of the Caucasian race, which dominates and 
controls, there are only 6,762. 

Under the constitution of Hawaii no one can vote without swear- 
ing to support that constitution, and it so happens that this con- 
stitution provides for annexing the island to the United States. 
This constitution was forced upon the people of the island by a 
handful of Americans, and has disfranchised all the inhabitants 
of the island who will not swear that they wiE vote to surrender 
theirnative land to another government before they are permitted 
to vote. This may be called a free ballot, bnt it has the appear- 
ance of a ballot of^pred to the voter in one hand with the condi- 
tion of his voting that he surrender his birthright, and if he re- 
fuses this condition a sword is held in the other hand to strike 
down the ballot and to disfranchise the voter. It is a Government 
thus organized that presents the treaty that we propose to accept 
by the resolutions pending before this House. I deny that the 
people of the island have been fairly consulted in this transaction. 
It is a scheme to force a robbery, pure and simple, that we are 
caJled upon to sanction and enforce. 

Mr. TAWNEY. WiU the gentleman allow an interruption? 

Mr. BLAND. I have but thirty minutes. 

Mr. TAWNEY. I simply desire to ask whether you know that 
the Senate of Hawaii which ratified the treaty is composed largely 
of native Hawaiians? 

Mr. BLAND. Oh, Mr. Speaker, I am not speaking of natives 
or foreigners. There are a few white natives. I am speaking of 
the population of that island, and especially the population to 
■whom that island by nativity belongs. When the gentleman 



9 

presses thft^CLuesticm*, it is an admission that he has disfranchised 
them by the wholesale, and the pretense that they are presenting 
this treaty here voluntarily is a fratid and a lie npon its face. 

Mr. TAWNEY, Do yon not also know 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Does the gentleman from Mis- 
souri yield to the gentleman from Minnesota? 

Mr. BLAND. I can not yield any further. I have not the 
time. The gentleman can speak in his own time. 

Mr. TAWNEY. I simply wanted to call attention to the 
fact 

Mr. BLAND. I do not want to be discourteous to the gentle- 
men, but I have only thirty minutes. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I am not here to denounce the American 
people upon that island for their Americanism. I am here, so far 
as justice and right will permit it, to uphold them and to turn to 
them our support for whatever sympathy they have given us in 
this struggle. If they have violated any of the principles of neu- 
trality, if they have subjected themselves to any claim of damages 
from Spain, this great Grovernment of ours stands ready to foot 
the bill four times over, if necessary. 

When we come to treat with Spain we may have a much larger 
bill of damages than Spain can possibly present to Hawaii. 
Gbntlemen know, and the ruling powers in Hawaii know, that 
they are perfectly safe in any favors they give to this great Govern- 
ment. Not only that, but they know that in the future,, as well 
as in the past, this Government intends that no hostile power 
shall ever dominate over those islands. 

That has been our pledge and om* policy from the beginning. 
The resolutions to be offered by us as a substitute for annexation 
provides that we shall forever guarantee independence to the Sand- 
wich Islands. This is a mere pretext thrown in here under the 
war spirit to perpetrate upon the people of this cotmtry what I 
conceive to he a wrong; not so much now in the acquisition of 
Hawaii as in what it looks to in the future for the acquisition of 
territory beyond. 

Why, they tell us that the acquisition of territory is nothing 
new. That is very true. The policy of oiir Government hereto- 
fore, and its practice, has been to admit territory that was contig- 

3476 



10 

uoiis. vintil we have become a homogeneous people. All of our 
territory, except that which we acquired from Russia, is connected 
by land and subject to defense. The great land power of the 
world to-day is this country. The next great land power is Rus- 
sia. No Government since 1812 has ever attempted to invade the 
United States of America. 

No one has ever attempted to invade Russia since the disaster 
that overtook Napoleon in his retreat from Moscow. Here we are 
pursuing a policy of our own under the teachings of our fathers 
to abstain from all trans- Atlantic aggressions, complications, or 
alliances, building up for ourselves a compact territory, as far as 
honor will permit remaining at peace with all the world, and we 
have grown ujj to be the most ]powerful nation in the world by 
pursuing this policy. 

To-day we are at war with Spain. And what has been the pol- 
icy of Spain? Precisely the policy that we, by these resolutions, 
are invited to enter upon. But a short time ago in modern his- 
tory Spain was the most powerful nation, probably, on earth. She 
had her colonies in every land and fronting on every sea. In 
Europe was her great Kingdom and its dependencies. Tlae whole 
of South America practically was hers, and part of our own North 
America was under her flag. 

These colonies and the support of them have brought Spain to 
riTin and bankruptcy. She is unable longer to continue that policy. 
The last of her colonies upon this continent are about to be taken 
from her, and nearly all upon the other. This is the i)olicy which 
has brought ruin and disaster to her, so that she is hardly a re- 
spectable enemy in a conflict with a nation that has piirsued the 
opposite policy, that has eschewed colonization and eschewed the 
idea that we must go over the world in order to map out colonies 
here and there as a place for American settlement and on which 
to plant the American flag, and by which we will be involved in 
large expense in order to maintain and defend them. 

Here is the conti'ast of the two nations to-day. Let us not de- 
part from our policj'. This is a departure, and a dangeroias depar- 
ture. 

Some one asked the question a while ago how these islands 
would be governed if we acquired them. It could not be answered. 



11 

No gentleman has undertaken to answer that question. It is left, 
I suppose, for the future consideration of Congress. 

Suppose yoii had that question here now, as you will have it if 
you annex them. How are you going to govern them? Is it to 
fi-ee a people? No. You know you do not intend to do it. Do 
you intend to give the ballot to the people of Hawaii? You 
know you do not, although the Constitution declares that every- 
one born in the United States shall have the right to vote, that 
he is a citizen, at least, and shall not be disfranchised on account 
of race or previous condition. 

Now, the question arises; When it becomes a part of the terri- 
tory of the United States, and there are those born on that ter- 
ritory, what are you going to do with them? Are they citizens 
or not? 

Mr. LANHAM. If the gentleman will permit me to interrupt 
him, woiild they rot be subject to taxation if annexed to the 
United States? And if so, would they not logically be entitled to 
representation? 

Mr. BLAND. Well, I think, as a matter of course, if we are to 
annex the Hawaiian Islands, and they are to be governed as citi- 
zens of the United States, we are bound to permit them to exercise 
all the rights of citizenship and the right of the ballot; because 
we have no right to tax them without representation. 

The Constitution of the United States provides that every per- 
son born in the United States is a citizen thereof. It also provides 
that no citizen of the United States shall be disfranchised on ac- 
count of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. An im- 
portant question in this connection arises here. There are 39,504 
natives on the island, nearly all of whom are of the inferior race. 
There are only 3,000 Americans. When Hawaii becomes a part 
of the territory of the United States what shall be said as to the 
legal status of these 39,000 natives? May they not claim the right 
of native citizenship, because the territory would then be a part 
of the United States? They would also be natives of that part of 
the United States. 

It is true that at the date of their birth they were not natives 
of the United States, but so soon as the territory becomes a part 
of the United States they woiild claim and reasonably insist that 



12 

tliey are natives of this coviiitry. They would insist that the Con- 
stitution did not intend to confine nativity to the territory be- 
longing to the United States at the time of the adoption of this 
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, but that it 
necessarily inclu(?es whatever territory might at any time come 
within the jurisdiction of the Constitution. 

Also, what will be the status of the children born of Chinese, 
Japanese, and Portuguese parentage? In other words, will not 
the native inferior race under the Constitution become voters so 
soon as the territory is admitted, and will not this fact place the 
whole Government in the hands of the inferior race beyond hope 
of redemption? Will such a population add to the glory and se- 
curity of our institutions, or will not the superior race find some 
pretext to disfranchise the inferiors after they have been admitted, 
since we know they did that in order to form a treaty of ad- 
mission? 

Mr. SMITH of Arizona. Do not we do it in the Territories of 
the United States? 

Mr. BLAND. But my friend must remember that in all the 
admissions of territory and annexation of territories, most of 
which was done by the policy of Jefferson and his Democratic 
confreres, it had been territory the climatic conditions of which 
was admissible for the Caucasian race, admitted for the very pur- 
pose of settlement by our own people and our ovfn race, and all 
these admissions of territory of suitable climate and soil, and 
being contiguous, it was a fit home for the American citizen; and 
so it is with your Territory, and if you are not admitted as a State 
it is not because you are Chinese or Japanese, but because you 
produce silver. That is yovir crime. 

But I say the same government would practically be introdiiced 
in Hawaii as there is now — a government that you on the other side 
of this House have denounced iipon this floor. That is one where 
the intelligence and the property-holding element control. And 
they will find a way to control in that island as they have every- 
where. But do you want any more such territories? Have we 
not enough now of race prejudice and race conflict in this coun- 
try? This race question is not settled here, Mr. Speaker. It is 
one of the most perplexing problems in the future of this Govern- 



13 

ment to settle, and the more perplexities you add to it the more 
difficult and the more dangerous it becomes. 

But, Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasing thing to jingoism, the idea of 
planting iipon the seas war stations for the American flag! They 
believe that it is great and glorious: but it may end in a denial of 
suffrage to the people you acquire, to place them under the con- 
trol of military governors and improvised Congressional legisla- 
tion. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I have said that the future o£ Hawaii is 
somewhat perplexing. Of course we all understand that. We do 
not propose that they shall fall into the hands of another govern- 
ment hostile to ours. It is not necessary to annex them in order 
to carry out that ijolicy. It is understood now. There is no 
danger of it. 

The prime movers for the annexation of Hawaii boldly assert 
on this floor, and we find it everywhere in the plutocratic press 
of the country, that Hawaii is necessary to us in our new policy. 
This new policy is defined as being the permanent occupation of 
the Philippine Islands, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and whatever other 
ter-'itory we may conquer during this war, and more still, they 
tell us that we must make alliances with England and Japan, if 
not openly, then secretly, to the end that we may i^articipate in 
carving up and parceling out the Chinese Empire. 

They tell us that this must be done in order to push our trade in 
the Orient. We are to be brought immediately into conflict with 
France, Germany, Rtissia, Italy, and Austria in these enterprises. 
We are solaced with the assurances that there are no dangers of 
war. We are told that even if war should come, that the United 
States, England, and Japan could hold their own against the 
world. This is called our new destiny. Every intelligent man 
knows that all the nations that I have named are armed to the 
teeth. They present a military camp and they have immense na- 
vies. The laboring and producing people of these countries have 
been taxed in order to keep up these military establishments until 
they are mere slaves to plutocratic power as represented in mili- 
tarism. Millions of them have come to our shores because we were 
exempt from the necessities of military rule. 

They love our country because they find freedom here from the 



14 

enormous burdens and the degrading tyranny of the governmenta 
of the Old World. Shall we enter upon a policy that requires im- 
mense navies and standing armies and that mvolves the enormous 
taxation necessary to maintain them? If we are to prosecute this 
war for such purposes it will be a source of disappointment to 
the people who entered upon it in the interest of freedom and not 
of slavery. Such a policy as this is intended and is urged by its 
promoters for the purpose of building up in this country a cen- 
tralized power of wealth with big standing armies and navies to 
protect this plutocratic control. When oiir people complain, as 
the taxpayer will complain, of the burdens thus imposed upon 
them, plutocracy expects to be able with military power to answer 
their petition, if necessary, with an array of bayonets. 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has 
expired. 

Mr. BLAND. I would like about five minutes more. 

Mr. DINSMORE. I yield five minutes to the gentleman. 

Mr. BLAND. And that is where this will lead to. That is 
why I object to it at this time. It is because the promoters of the 
annexation of Hawaii foreshadow a policy such as I have alluded 
to that I most streniiously object to the admission at this time. 

I would oppose,tlie annexation of Hawaii under any circum- 
stances, but to annex Hawaii with the avowed purpose of using 
Hawaii as a precedent, and also as an aid to the acquisition and 
permanent occupation of colonies everywhere and for the purpose 
of entering upon schemes of imperialism, meets my earnest and 
emphatic protest. 

You are simply on the road to despotism in this country in try- 
ing to free the little Island of Cuba. You are on the road to 
imperialism, with a large Navy and standing armies and oppres- 
sive taxation, oppressing labor by putting it down by the military, 
and adopting a military government instead of republican insti- 
tutions and constitutional liberty. That is involved in this very 
discussion. 

You may go on for a while under the military spirit and excite- 
ment of war, but the day will come for reckoning when your bills 
are to be footed, when your taxes are to be paid, when bond after 

bond is to be issued, and when the starving labor begins to "cry 
U76 



15 

•Peace,' when there is no peace." Your day of reckonhig Avill 
come, and I call a halt now, for now is the time. 

Some gentlemen have spoken to me about leprosy and lepers. 
Why, Mr. Speaker, 1 have not time to go into all these questions. 
No intelligent man here can be deceived as to the population of 
the Hawaiian Islands. Any intelligent man here knows that they 
are not our equals in any sense of the word. They do not com- 
prehend our system of government. They are wholly incapable 
of understanding it. Yet they are entitled to freedom. 

It does not matter whether they can govern themselves as well 
as we can or not. They are entitled to try the experiment of self- 
government. It belongs to them, or else the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence is a lie in itself. And so it is with Cuba, so it is with 
Puerto Rico, so it is with the Philippine Islands. We can do no 
more than to turn over whatever territory comes under our juris- 
diction to their people, free to do with it as they please. And if 
in the providence of God they are capable of self-government, they 
will succeed. Above all , our consciences will be free and our lib- 
erties not endangered. [Applause.] 
3i76 



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